


A Foxfire Tale

by Archaema



Series: Earth, the Veil Shed [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: College, Ear petting, F/F, Fluff, Genderswap, Kitsune, Lesbian Sex, Magic, Modern Fantasy, Oral Sex, Tail Play, Transgender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-05 02:08:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17909960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archaema/pseuds/Archaema
Summary: A bad encounter with a professor leads to the complete collapse of your college career, all for





	1. Outfoxed

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written on twitter, which affects the format a bit, but it was fun and this will allow people to have a nice, single space they can read it in its entirety.
> 
> The tags for a character changing gender, in a transgender character-focus be it magic or RL, I'm not totally sure I like, but I'm going with what's available here. If you know better options, lemme know.

Four and a half years of university.

$63,000 in debt.

One anthropological research project left.

And you just got out of a contentious argument with your professor.

You're certain they exist.

He is less convinced, which is to say not at all, and some choice descriptors were leveled at you.

Now, at home, it's still sinking in as you sit at your computer. You didn't even bother to turn on the lights in your apartment when you got there.

You're pretty sure you've face-planted on your desk at least three times in frustration so far, wondering what made you think you could even broach such an odd research topic.

You could have kept it purely as a study of societies influencing beliefs and gotten away with it.

But no, you had to throw in a few lines in the opening of your thesis about 'proving the existence of tangible influences on human memory by near-human societies.'

It hadn't been a joke.

"Start over," you mumble into your forearms with a groan.

You had 47 pages of cultural research from two continents written, but you knew you were being risky. 

You need the last piece of the puzzle.

In your hands, real evidence. Not simply some vague accountings or second-hand sources, but a genuine unexplainable artifact.

Better yet, if you could just find one.

If you could get a picture of one of them, then that would do it. Something that couldn't just have been digitally thrown together, but a sharp photo.

And perhaps you could find the Holy Grail, Atlantis, and your missing blue sock, too.

It's a good evening outside, at least. An early, low moon hangs just above the nearby park. They don't lock the gates for a but yet. Fresh air would probably be lovely while reconsidering your life choices, presuming you don't just flip on your couch and sleep.

You're fairly certain the heavy sigh you let go as you stand up is audible the next apartment over.

The forest is a calming place; it can't hurt. You slip your light jacket on and head for the door, snagging your keys from the small fox-shaped dish by the door, a gift from mum.

In a few minutes, you're meandering down the path in the park. You're not terribly convinced it's helping your mood or the oppressive cloud in your head, but at least it smells nice and the songbirds are still on top of their game.

Round the bend, you pause.

The paved path through the little park is well-manicured black concrete. To the left, there's a trail that you can't recall for the life of you having seen before. Grass and dirt, the kind the parks try to prevent from being tampered with; usually it's the biology department.

There's no warning to leave it undisturbed, though, which isn't like them. You'd friend Margo is pretty meticulous with these things.

If it is, some other students probably ripped down the sign. It wouldn't be the first time that some of the feats had made a wreck of things.

So in you go, with the best of intentions.

You try to ignore that path to hell expression.

The trail is clear and walkable, winding through the trees. The park isn't too big, and you find yourself wondering how far it can really go. You glance back, to gauge your distance.

You come to a stop, utterly perplexed by the solid wall of brush behind you not terribly far. There's no earthly way you can imagine your have crossed through that.

But if you keep on, you have to hit the road around the park or the gift shop sooner or later.

You file the bushes away into the sealed side of your brain reserves for weird ass things that do not compute, and hurry on, the pervasive nagging in your mind shifting its tone completely.

Five minutes.

Ten.

Twenty.

You're jogging; as best you can, anyway, growing winded.

Against your body's wishes, you speed up. You're not keen on checking behind you again to see if the wall of nature has chased you.

And then you find yourself face-planting for the fourth time today.

Leaves and dirt is definitely not your preferred flavor combination. You sputter out some of it, and roll over, groaning. Your vision is blurry.

"OhmygoddessIamsosorry!"

The rapid fire words don't make sense when you hear them at first, but you feel a little less alarmed when a slight hand gently takes your upper arm to pull you into a sitting position.

You start to make out the worried face of a girl with vibrant red-brown hair.

You're fairly sure she's your age, and in another moment you manage to pull your thoughts together.

"Tamara?" You recognize that concerned expression; it's not the first time you've seen it. You're certain she made a better choice on her thesis paper than you did.

'Arboreal Loss in Green Space Suburbs' is probably a lot less likely to get a rage bender from the professor.

"Hey, uh, so..." she begins, looking away a moment before looking back. "First, are you ok?"

"I mean, I feel like I ran into an oak tree. Or a brick wall. You know. Whichever fits your preferred mental image." You rub your forehead and look back at her, wincing a bit at the lingering throb.

"But you're not like, concussed?"

"I don't think so but that's a doctor's call?"

"Good enough for now," she says with a relieved huff of breath. "Ok, second then..."

She looks away again, and you see a bit if a blur if something moving just behind her. You're not really sure what to make of it when her gold eyes catch you.

"Vision's ok, huh?"

You blink a few times.

"...Is that?"

"A tail? ...yeah." She stifles an amused sound, but the grin on her face doesn't manage to hide. "I'm shocked you didn't look up, first?"

And you're inclined to agree when you catch the soft, furred ears with black tips just above where you're used to seeing her more, well, human ears.

"Huh," you murmur. "Sorry, whatever it was that hit me was pretty-"

"Yeah, that was me, sorry," she interjects with a wince.

"You're like not even six foot tall, how-" You shake your head quickly and suddenly you're staring. "Tail and ears? What the fuck, Tamara!"

You've seen well-made ears and tails as accessories before.

These are definitely not that.

She sighs, reaching up to rub at the back if her head a bit nervously, the feeling clear un her face, too.

"Ah, yeah, so, this seemed relevant to your research," she begins, before reaching out to grab your hands. "Now listen, this is important. I need you to pay attention."

You nod slowly, pretty sure your confusion and curiosity are equally apparent.

"I heard Mr. Avignon yelling at you. About your thesis." Her tone has turned deadly serious, almost a glare aimed at you. "You're clever. Too clever, honestly. I snuck in to see what the fuss was."

"How the heck did you sneak into his office? He hears students muttering down the whole hallway?"

"I'm good at what I do. Don't interrupt, k? K." She points over in what you assume is the direction of the campus. "That paper is in my bag, and I'm gonna need you to delete it."

"What? It took me the whole semester, I can't just-"

"Off the hard drive, your phone, Google, everywhere," she finishes, ignoring your protest. Her expression eases, though. "You're hitting a bit close to home, right?"

"Or I'm fucking hallucinating. Either or."

She reaches up and thwaps you on the nose, glaring.

"This isn't a joke, I promise. It's deadly real. I'm gonna take you to do what I've said, and then you're gonna come back here with me."

"But why?"

"Because, you dense as hell human, I know you. You're gonna keep looking."

"You're really, actually one then," you finally murmur. The lingering throb has cleared away mostly, and you feel like you're properly focusing at last. "You're a kitsune?"

"No, I'm obviously the pope with fox ears and a tail. Of course I am! We have to go to college too!"

"Ok, but... it's just my thesis. No one is gonna believe it anyway. That was made patently obvious." You're not sure if that or whatever she used to stop you three levels of too hard hurts more, really.

"There are always people who do, and you made good connections. Too good."

"I just... how does that hurt anyone?"

"Seriously? Do you sleep through class and what you people do to things that aren't human or even ones that are a hair different?"

"I..." You sigh, and let yourself lay back on the ground with a hefty flop on it. "Fine."

"I know it sucks but at least you don't have to worry about being taken seriously, cause we sure take you seriously."

"Yeah, the student loan debt collectors are gonna take my ass seriously, too," you groan.

"Ah, yeah." She slides up beside you and lays down.

Her arm drapes over you, just below your chest, and she looks pushes you to meet her gaze.

"You're gonna have to drop out for a while." She holds up a single finger with her other hand, stifling your protest. You shift irritably.

"You know too much about us, so..."

Ah. This is going well.

You're going to get murdered by a kitsune in a park and she's probably gonna take your computer and all the personal things on it, too. Well, at least you'll be dead, you figure.

"You've actually got two options. You either join us, or uh, yeah. I have claws."

You narrow your eyes. Half what you were expecting. You furrow your brow in thought, trying to even begin to imagine what joining them would even entail.

She watches intently, patient.

For about a minute at least, before you notice her hand at her mouth.

"Are you... Are you trying not to laugh?" you ask incredulously.

And that does it. Shes laughing and gasping for breath and you're not at all sure what part of this constitutes 'funny.'

She puts a hand on your hair once she's reduced it to irrepressible giggles, and shakes her head.

"For fucks sake, I may have claws but I'm not gonna gut you or something," she manages to say.

You sigh, but you can't lie to yourself that you're not a bit relieved.

"So I join you, somehow, whatever that means, or...?"

"Come on, you did the research. The myths aren't all wrong. I'll charm the last few months out of your head, but... The human world consequences would probably really, really..." She takes a quick breath. "Reaaaaaally suck."

"Yeah, probably would," you mumble.

"Whatever it entails, though? So you're considering it?"

"I mean yeah, not gonna lie and say I had no curiosity in my research, I guess."

"Tails."

"Yeah, you have tails."

"No, that's what it entails. Tails."

"Oh... I..." You groan.

"Get it?"

"You know, Tam, I thought I liked you. Like really. But I'm pretty sure I might hate you right now?"

She pauses, a frown appearing. She closes her eyes, turning to look up at the canopy of the trees.

"Sorry, I know this is heavy stuff."

"What? No, the fucking joke. Tails. What the hell. Honestly."

"Ahh," she nods. "You're gonna have to get used to that if you go with coming along."

"I think I may go for the claws."

"It's not all puns, I'm sure the deadpan sarcasm will fit right in." There's another sigh. "A lot of us are pretty fatalistic. You probably get why, right?"

You look over at her, and take a slow, contemplative pause.

You've read environmental papers, gone to climate change presentations, researched past catastrophes.

If they're tied to nature, it can't be too positive these days.

But maybe...

"Ok. All this aside?" Maybe you're making a terrible choice, but something feels right. "Yeah."

“Yeah as in yeah?" Her words are hesitant. For the first time, you get the impression she might be afraid of something totally different.

"Yeah. Let's do the entail thing," you say quietly. You're surprised at how calm the final decision was.

"What, really?" Suddenly she's right over you, blinking owlishly in surprise. "No one ever wants to join us!"

"Maybe less puns would help?"

"Nah, doubt it." She sits back up over you, crossing her arms.


	2. Learning Not to Give a Fox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tam has expectations about your thesis, and it's time to fulfill them.

Four hours gathering yourself together.

A shorter walk than you'd expected.

A companion you were utterly unprepared to encounter or deal with.

Oh, and no work whatsoever done on that 'new' thesis.

It's an odd mix, that curiosity and sense of dread commingling in your head.

Your apartment is in the same state you left it when you open the door after a rustle of your keys. You didn't even bother to turn out the kitchen lights, driven out by the weight of your disaster of a day.

Milk's still on the counter, too. Another couple bucks wasted.

"You all really live like this?" Tamara's right beside you. If you didn't know better, you'd think she were guarding you all along your ordained task of file purging.

The fact that that is precisely what she's doing makes you give a small, amused snort, and shrug.

"Depends on what you mean by 'this', I guess," you say, managing a little bit of a smile for the first time since your academic execution.

"It's just pretty closed in and small." She gave her own shrug. "Like I've been in literal holes in the wall, and this is pretty close."

"Yeah, well, I can't afford much. Mom and Dad didn't have much, but when they split up, they stopped contributing at all."

"Oh. Sorry," she says. You can see the embarrassment in her cheeks from having gotten into a painful subject.

"Eh, don't be. It's better this way."

"That's..." She pauses in her walkthrough of the small domicile, and comes back over to you. She puts a comforting hand on your shoulder and bites her lip for a split second. "That's really sad, for some reason."

"Yeah, well, when your parents split up, it's time for all kinds of new complexes, you know?" You wince at how harsh your words sound as soon as you hear them, and put your hand up on hers. "Look, I just... The last year hasn't been the best."

"How do you think they'll react?"

"To?" It's a bit of a blank moment, before you notice she's just raising an eyebrow at you. "Oh yeah. That."

"That," she affirms.

"I don't reckon they'll care," you say, sighing slowly. 

It hurts way more to admit it than you expected.

"How? They have to still-" She catches herself, and sets her jaw. Then, it's a firm nod. "I'm going to teach you that found family is better than blood. Consider it my personal mission."

"People are shit, and they fuck you up." Again, the words come too hard. You can't look at her in the eyes. 

Right. 

Work. 

There's a job to be done.

Focus.

She follows you as you go to your computer desk. When you settle into the chair, she leans against the back of it, and her arms drape over your shoulders.

"I mean..." You hear her sigh, and then you feel her hair brushing against yours as she settles in more comfortably close.

"I can't say you're totally wrong," she says, anguish breaking through a hint in her voice. "These things aren't fair. And it doesn't matter if it's a human person or one of us, or anything else like us. Some of them are bad."

You lean your head back, and you find her peering at you. You have to take a moment to rub your face and try to ease some of the tension waxing in your head.

"You think more about the ones that do good?"

"No, honestly." She shakes her head. "But if some do, then that's worth something, right?"

"I'm not sure how to equate this with a girl who was telling me to basically convert or die a few hours ago."

"I told you, that was a joke!" There's a wide grin at that. "And you were totally hooked."

"I was literally being chased by a wall of plants, and then I got knocked the fuck out."

"I mean fair, but it was still fun. And I said I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stop you that hard, it's just that sometimes the other nature spirits get a bit, you know, energetic."

"I never did ask if there was blood on my face," you say, rolling your eyes.

"Only a little!"

You lean forward at your monitor. No good there. You grab your smart phone, and flip on the camera.

"Seriously?"

"You're not hurt badly," she says with a dismissive wave of a hand. "And who cares if anyone sees you? -You- aren't gonna be the person they saw, soon."

You pause, and set your phone down.

That part is still sinking in, and so surreal that this all feels like some strange fever dream.

"What exactly does it mean, joining you?" To be fair, it's not the first time you've agreed to something without knowing its implications.

She gives you a scrutinizing look, then lifts herself up and slides over to plant herself on the corner of your desk.

"You know how there are stories of my kind just... whisking people away and them disappearing?" 

"Most of the myths are just people being tricked, or.. yeah."

"Huh, those must be getting lost. Well, you know how there's the magical jewelry foxes have?"

You nod. Hoshi no tama is the Japanese term, and they're the culture with the most mention of Kitsune - Enough to derive their common name among humans from them.

'Tama' doesn't always smoothly translate, but most of the time you see them as pearls and gems in the wood block prints.

"Well, each new Kitsune gets one." 

"So I get this gem, and... Something happens? I get a castle? A million bucks?"

She leans in a bit, and grins. You're not quite able to parse the way she looks you up and down; something between curiosity and concern.

"Each one is unpredictable. Maybe it's 'cause the goddess of the forest has as much of a sense of humor as we do."

"Great, that makes me feel better." 

"It should!"

"If she has a sense of humor, then what's to say I don't end up a damn frog or platypus for the rest of my life?"

"Oh for... It happened one time!"

"What?" That is not the answer you were hoping for.

"What?" She's fallen into an utterly innocent look, glancing up at the ceiling.

"You're kind of worrying me here." Sure enough, your heart is racing at the prospects of what could go wrong.

She doesn't turn down to face you again, but her eyes fall on you, and she looks at you from above. Her sly grin peeks out again, and she gives a single laugh with a shake of her head.

"It turns you into a Kitsune. The hell else would it do? There's some variables and exceptions, sure," she says, and then sticks her tongue out and hops up to her feet. "I'm really curious to see how it goes. Are you a field fox? A ghost fox? ...Probably not a celestial fox."

She turns a quick spin on her toes and when she stops, she lays her hands on your shoulder.

"You don't understand how exciting this is. My clan hasn't taken in someone in..." She hums, thinking. "It's been twenty years on the dot!"

You really aren't sure what to say, but... she's honestly being kind of cute - When you squint at the whole situation a bit. It's hard not to feel at least a little kernel of her excitement about what could really happen.

"Well, I don't wanna disappoint you, so..." You turn back to your PC and pull it out of sleep.

"I went to so much work, trying to connect all these myths around the world, and the old journals I found in the Chapel Hill repository," you say, shaking your head. 

You watch as your cursor slips over to the folder.

'Anthro Thesis (Kitsune - Fact v Fiction)'

You're holding your breath as it seems to glare back at you from the pale screen.

So is Tam, leaning over your shoulder again, her gold eyes fixated on the document icon.

One click. The delete key. Enter on the confirmation pop up.

You feel like you've just taken a part of your soul and tossed it in a blender.

And then she throws around you and gives you a tight hug.

You aren't even sure what to say or how to feel, but she's also warm and close, and it's so surprisingly pleasant. You can feel the ghost of an impression on your mind, suddenly.

She's happy, and instinctively you're certain she's never had someone take her seriously.

"That's really sad, for some reason," you whisper to yourself.


	3. Foxed Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Days in the forest, on your feet, really sucks. 
> 
> And then things get worse.

Four days.

Four entire days spent walking.

Some of the paths are worn, well-traveled.

Others are a constant joy of branches to the face and other more tender body parts.

"Ok, we gotta stop for a few minutes," you say through worn gasps for breath. You're pretty sure your feet are bloody nubs by now.

"You spend lots of time walking in the woods. I thought you were in better shape than this," Tamara says. She's paused, leaning back and stretching.

"Look, I'm great at a quick run to the corner shop or an afternoon stroll in the park, but this is four days of forest." You flop down and lean back against a broad tree's trunk, letting your head fall back against it with a groan.

In the past, you might have worried about bugs; you gave up on that concern about two days ago.

"I guess," she says, shrugging. "I don't know how humans get along in life with at least a good run once or twice a day."

"I cope by sleeping under the covers as late and as warm as possible. It's totally brutal."

"I guess that has it's benefits, too," she says, giving you an odd smirk before she reaches into the pack she's slung down off of her shoulder.

She hands you a roll of crusty, sweet-smelling bread. It's a good distraction, and you take a few bites of it, enjoying the soft and chewy interior contrasted with the crunch of the crust.

She nibbles on her own piece, content as she watches you.

“How much further do we need to go, anyway?" It's not that the forests aren't lovely, but it's sort of starting to blur together.

"Pretty soon," she says, standing up and craning her neck to look down the curvy trail. "I was hoping we wouldn't need these for breakfast, but the paths have a mind of their own, sometimes. Nature, remember?"

"Ah, so it's rejecting me," you say with a sardonic grin. "Not that I blame nature for being much different."

"Oh for the love of..." She looks over her shoulder at you and frowns.

There's a sigh, and she steps over and puts her hands on your shoulders, looking you right in the eye with her golden gaze. "You're already belong whether you know it or not." 

You bite your tongue, and squeeze your eyes shut for a moment.

"I can just feel it, ok? Nature just... does its thing, sometimes. It's not something you can always lock down with human logic."

"Sorry," you murmur, wilting into a faint frown of your own. The ghost of your crisis at school doesn't seem keen on giving up haunting you soon.

She gives a tilt of her head with a quirk of the corner of her mouth, as if she means to say something more, but then shakes her head to herself and squeezes you lightly. You're keenly aware of how your habit of saying 'sorry' tends to get you chastised.

"It's ok."

She takes the insulated water bottle you'd brought and pushes it into one of your hands, then grabs the other to pull you back on your way.

Your feet haven't eased up a whole lot with the aching; you're certain there are blisters, but you've been too afraid to really look.

Still, the bounce in her step that seems to have snuck its way in is reassuring.

It's still another solid hour, the sun starting to reach its pinnacle in the sky when the trees suddenly abate.

Tam slows a bit and looks about. You think there's a faint bit of confused hesitation before she looks back at you and nods.

"It's just up there." The excitement has won out, and she practically drags you the first part of the way across the clearing. 

You really don't see anything of note; the first thing that catches your senses is a distant crackling.

She slows, and hunches forward a hint. Her ears perk up, tail waving slowly behind her, a bit more bushy and irritable than before.

"That's... This doesn't feel right." She looks back at you, but her ears are mostly turned to face a point off near the other edge of the trees.

"Keep low," she says. She puts a hand on yours, and points down. "Wait here, I'm gonna see what's up."

You can't even remotely guess where she is once she's gone more than a few feet away. It doesn't help that you crouched down in the tall grass, the long blades swaying gently.

It's a few minutes before you really start to pick up on the smell carrying in the gentle breeze.

Before your parents split up, there used to be lots of occasions where the fireplace would be aglow with dancing flames from logs they stockpiled each year.

You know that smoky scent with a current of wood to it.

You think about it, for a moment. You can stay put as she asked. But if that omen is true, and the worst happened, it's not like you can get anywhere at this point.

Your phone is almost dead, even after your supply of battery packs, and there's no connection anyway. You'd just wander until the end.

Maybe it's just cooking fire. 

...That you can hear from across a whole meadow.

"Fuck, this is not a good idea."

You start to creep forward, toward where your nose and your ears guide you. You're not a kitsune, not yet at least, but out in the forest, with the distractions of most of civilization, you're surprised at how well your senses respond to subtle stimuli.

What does not greet you is the sound of people of any sort.

The fire is dull and waning, the smoke more thin than you had expected from the way it tickled the back of your throat.

Charred timbers that were the corners of buildings set on either side of a circle of dense trees, as if nature had built a wall around them.

You slip past the gap, presuming it is the intended entrance, and keep to the edge for a moment before you give up the charade of stealth.

This is a dead place.

There were probably a dozen buildings around the clearing. You can still see mossy blankets on the ground in places where the fire did not scorch.

"Tam?" You call out, looking about slowly, with a growing sense of dread clawing at you.

You begin to make your way through, looking for anything intact.

You wince when you see something anthropology's archeological side has taught you all too well; bones, blackened by ravenous flames. You don't want to consider the kind of heat it must have taken to produce.

You never thought of yourself as easily moved, before, but you find an intrusive wetness creeping into your vision.

However bizarre the circumstances had been, Tam offered you a new home; a new life, and one where she had sworn to give you a sense of value long since lacking. Even with it only as a vague hope, you feel like it's been stolen from you. How she must have felt seeing this, though, makes it all the worst. You can almost feel her lingering anguish in the air.

A chill breeze catches you, making you shiver as it sweeps over you with an insistent intensity. It's so counter to the lingering, dancing fires and still smoldering embers that you turn to glance at where it's come from.

The trees at the very back of the village, behind what was the biggest building, have twisted to the sides. Curling cedar, it looks both engineered and natural at the same time.

A gateway.

Glancing back at the dead, you stifle a shudder at the sheer wrongness around you.

You cannot escape a sensation that you are expected. When you look back, you can almost swear the pine shifts and sways, beckoning you.

And you alone.

Maybe Tam went that way.

Kitsune are a secretive folk, after all. It would make sense some part of the village or sanctuary was hidden yet more than the village itself.

You pull your old, battered leather jacket tight to you and make your way around the wreckage.

You're fairly sure some god or goddess, maybe more than one, are laughing at you.

You're certain it is not the forest goddess.


	4. A Gift of Foxfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search ends in a Goddess.

Forty steps. 

Four hoots from an owl.

The gloom is not the normal of this time of day here. Heavy leaves obscure the sun, blotting out enough light for the fungi along the winding path to glow soft green and blue in the dim light and guide you.

Guided by foxfire, you find yourself at a curious structure. You find yourself before two wooden columns with an overhang, carved with ideograms you’ve seen in old journals only once or twice before. You already knew that the kitsune were real, but this feels unreal.

The wood is smooth under your fingertips as you slide them along, feeling the curves of the carvings.

You tear yourself away.

You hadn’t seen above beyond the veil of the forest mountains beginning to grow in the distance, yet the opening to a cave is settled between them.

Beyond, the way is practically aglow with more foxfire. The iridescent light pulses faintly, almost welcoming, but something roils deep within you.

Are you anathematic to this place? How can you not profane it with just a step past the threshold?

She has to be there, though. At least, you force yourself to believe that to be true. You shove the concerns to the back of your mind, and though they bay like the hounds of hunters, you bite your lip and step to the other side.

It’s less complex than expected. You’re soon at a wide cave after only moments of walking over worn stone. The verdant glow and charged blue make it feel like another world. What color the long rug set in the center of the chamber is you couldn’t say, but it is simple, beautiful.

Likewise, the shrine beyond, seems impossible. White marble? You can’t quite tell. All you know is that it shimmers with the colors of the cave. Had you eyes for it, you’d call it sublime.

Your attention is for the fox girl in front of it, hugging her knees to her chest.

Her shoulders are still, but you know that pose, curled up and hurt.

You’ve been there before, even if you’d always been too proud to admit it.

For a long, anguished moment, you’re not sure what to even say or do.

What do you say to someone who has lost the tether to their life and their purpose? Their connection to their home?

You realize you know exactly what to do because it’s what you needed so desperately when no one was there to give it.

You move over and drop down on your knees, laying your arms over her shoulders as she had done back in your apartment. 

“Tamara,” you say hoarsely. “I’m so sorry.”

You find yourself quickly shoved away, sprawling out on your back with a memory of a tail whipping in the air.

The kitsune stands above you, golden eyes alight with fury and tears. 

Her fists are clenched. 

You can see her fangs.

She blinks once.

Then she lands on you, and clutches you so tightly you’re afraid you might break.

They’re so subtle, the shakes from the sobs. For such a small thing, they hurt to your core.

It’s enlightening and terrible at once to suddenly truly understand empathy.

You try the embrace again, returning your arms to her and holding her tightly.

*** * * * ***

Four hours spent.

You’re not sure when you fell asleep, but you’ve got a leg draped over you, her knee pointing to the ceiling. She’s sprawled out beside you, mouth open as she snores quietly. 

Her ear twitches once in a while.

It’s a bit funny to consider. When sleep finally takes you, it does not always play in rational ways with the memories of the day. The exhaustion of travel and tragedy won this time.

But what are you going to do, a human and a kitsune, with nowhere to go?

In a way, you realize you don’t really care. It’s just the death of your life plans in a new suit.

Because in the back of your mind, you’d imagined what it was going to be like. You did not really dare hold any hope that it would be good to join the kitsune, but your heart betrayed you, and now reality has torn it out again.

As it always seems to.

“I’m not sure how, Tam,” you whisper in the faintest voice that's all you can muster, “but I’m sure this is my fault, somehow.”

Her ear twitches, and she lands a hand squarely on your cheek.

She’s still not awake.

“I prolly deserved that,” you sigh.

“Your mind and your heart are frayed around the edges,” you hear. “You, my children, like leaves kissed by fire.”

Startled by the smooth, low voice, you sit upward quickly. You see no source - there needn’t be one, really.

A disembodied woman’s voice is hardly the most bizarre thing about your last week.

Except it is not a disembodied voice.

The light and her clothes make her blend in against the shrine. Her hair, her robes embroidered with ornate images of the moon chased by foxes, all blend too well. The only exception is her dark skin, contrasted sharply by gold eyes.

Even dim and distorted by the cave’s strange natural light, she is beautiful - beyond beautiful.

You shuffle a bit. If you’re going to meet someone so potent, someone you instinctively know is divine, you can’t be laying down with someone half-sleeping on you.

Yet you halt in your attempt to rise, her hand out to ward you off from doing so.

“Do not wake my daughter,” she says, eyes flicking over to Tamara before returning to you. A corner of her lip quirks up, though. “I do appreciate your desire to show proper deference to me. The intent is noted.”

You prop yourself up on your elbows, and simply nod slowly.

After all, what do you say to a goddess?

You’re staring.

“You want to know what happened to my people’s village?” When the goddess speaks finally after you find yourself lost in her, it is with a sad lilt to her words.

“It’s easy enough to figure out,” you reply. The thought makes you look away. 

“Good,” she says with a curt nod. “Some day, it will be time for an act of vengeance, but not today.”

There’s a spark of flame in your heart that doesn’t agree with that, but you do your best.

It is not without notice.

“You do not even know against whom you bear a grudge,” she says. 

She steps away from the shrine, and behind her nine tails of shimmering silver fur flow like so much fire.

“She would kill you without a second’s caution or remorse.” Her words come as she settles on a knee beside you, and cups your cheek with a warm hand.

You find yourself leaning against it, and your lingering aches seem to diminish, receding against a tide of comforting numbness.

“Who is she?”

“Isabella,” the goddess replies. “A child of darkness, who expends no effort to take life and destroy, when it appeals to her.”

“Maybe I should have asked what is she, then,” you amend, though you feel yourself becoming more lost in the connection to the fox goddess right there.

“An elder vampire, though not really in control of her actions.”

She gives you the faintest pinch of your neck, and narrows her eyes. 

“But that is for later. Tamara brought you here for a reason, wayward child.”

After you grimace for a moment at the sharp but ultimately harmless poke of pain, you find yourself looking at her again.

Amidst the horror and the flames, you had almost let it slip your mind.

“What’s left to join?” You ask. It hurts to ask, viscerally and sharp in your heart, almost as much as a knife would. You know it's hardly a thoughtful question, either.

“There are others scattered across this continent, and others. I would not have my children vanish.” Just the same, you can see that she has had tears mar her skin.

“But first, you and Tamara are this clan, now. You will find people to bring into the fold, one way or another.”

“What can I even do? I’m just...”

You sigh, and shake your head against the hand once again holding you gently.

“I’m just me.”

“You already learned more than most humans have in a hundred years regarding my children. You are not so weak and powerless as you think.”

Your heart begs to disagree, but you can’t find the words before her.

“But,” she says after quiet moment, “you also will need a bit of work done to fit my vision, as with all who come and seek this gift.”

Suddenly, you find yourself sitting in front of the shrine, squarely seated only a few steps from it.

"Don't worry, you only need to be a little afraid."

For a second you look about in stark shock but then you roll your eyes at yourself slightly.

She’s a goddess; one of fox spirits. Of course she’s fast.

And she's standing right between you and the shrine of her fox form. 

You give a nervous swallow.

“Often, it is not through a clear path, but one of mischief and trickery that one comes to receive my gift,” she says, looking down at you with her chin high. Before, she had been imposing but comforting, but now you can feel in your very bones the power and beauty she embodies.

It is effortless to wield in her hands, sublime and limitless.

“By your search and your agreement with my child, you have earned the offering of the gift of Inari Ōkami, the Nine-Tailed Divine.”

You can feel as much as see the silvery moon-like radiance that pours off of her, effortlessly outshining the foxfire in the cavern. 

It thrums in your ears and in your veins, almost unbearably great.

“Accept, and be realized in perpetuity as my child,” she says, extending a hand to you. Closed, she slowly opens her fingers.

It seems so simple, the small, curved stone bead in her palm, yet imbued with her own power it feels impossibly heavy in your mind.

“Decline, and you will remember nothing where you awake, far from this place.”

Your hand is shaking as you reach up. You brush against her hand accidentally, but she simply turns a corner of her lip up in a smirk.

As your fingers touch it, her other hand helps you close your hand over it.

“Welcome home.”


	5. What's In a Name?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tam is a bit curious about this new kitsune she's just met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains both gender transformation and transformation into a kitsune.

Four half-hours.

The time that separates a week ago and the moment you're experiencing feels like four years.

You've taken stock of yourself, with the help of a small reflecting pool off in a corner of the cave.

Tamara stirs, golden eyes fluttering open. They catch some of the foxfire in the cavern, mingling with the reflectiveness of her irises.

It's mesmerizing and beautiful enough that almost forget what's going on.

Then she sees you and scrambles to her feet.

"I didn't think anyone else survived!" She's on you in a flash, hugging you unabashedly.

You can't help a shy smile, but the weight of her relief hits you. You grasp her upper arms gently and slide back.

"I don't recognize you," she says, tilting her head curiously as she gets a better look. "Are you from another village?"

You shrug once; she's not totally wrong, after all.

That earns a quizzical look, her brow quirking and ears twitching in confusion.

You open your mouth, about to speak, but you stop yourself.

You don't know what your voice sounds like. Nervousness strikes at that realization.

"It's late, isn't it?" She's got her lips pursed in consideration, like you're a mystery to solve. "It should be safe. Can we go outside?"

You nod, then turn toward the path back outside. You hear a gasp as you do.

"I haven't seen a three tails in years!"

You can't stop yourself, and blurt it out.

"I hadn't even seen two until I saw you," you say. Definitely a different voice.

Better, if you had to give an opinion.

"What do you mean? I just have-" She goes starkly silent as she twists around trying to look behind herself.

You can't help but little giggle watching her, hiding it behind your hand. This is more like a cat video, a welcome distraction from the gravity of everything.

She finally pins the two furry bandits down, one a hand, and looks back to you with between a grin and disbelief.

"It must be because I brought that human," she says, letting her tails go and tapping her lips in thought. "I wonder where... We gotta find 'em!"

You shrug and turn toward the door. You're going to laugh if you don't.

She hovers behind you, looking over you as you cross through the dimness.

"Are… are you a celestial fox?" The way she says it gives you pause, but you can't stop walking yet. You want to get outside, first.

"I... I don't honestly know," you say, reaching the cave’s threshold. 

"How can you not know?" She bounds around you and looks up at you as you stand with half your feet on moss and half on stone. There's something accusatory, something suspicious, in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," you murmur, as you hold out a hand tentatively across the threshold, out into the night and toward the beyond.

She gasps when she pulls right up to you and presses against you, inspecting your face.

"No way..." she whispers. "It's you? Really?" The caution is obliterated by the surprise and elation taking over her face.

"Issir," you say. You know your name instinctively. "That's me. Apparently." You look away, almost shocked to have it come so easily to your lips.

"You do know you have boobs now, right?" she says, raising an eyebrow as she gives you a tiny bit of space.

"I'm very, very aware," you reply, biting at your lip.

There is no way, for the rest of your existence, that you are going to ever forget how it felt when you took that bead from the goddess.

The power she had bestowed had permeated every cell of you, evaluating each one, reacting.

"The gift always reacts to the recipient," Inari told you as you fell back, all of your own strength sapped as it bloomed within you. "It reflects what is within you, and my influence upon that core of your being."

The goddess's eyes stayed on you as you felt it roil and twist, tense yet never painful as her gift blossomed within you.

Your material self shifting and being reborn, you found yourself rolling onto your side as you felt the pressure at the base of your spine. 

At first, that was by far the most intense demand of your attention.

It was freeing when your old jeans finally gave up their tenacious fight and let the tails burst free.

On some level, at least, you'd kind of expected something like that to happen. It seemed to go hand in hand with the fox thing, along with the way you felt the odd sensation of your ears traveling and burgeoning outward through your hair.

You hadn't expected the heat, the swelling pulse in your chest that shot down your belly. It felt like flourishing pureness that embraced and pushed, shaped, and made anew.

You're pretty sure you made some embarrassing sounds.

There’s something elating about it, and sense of ‘rightness’ you’ve never known permeating your entire sense of self.

About that time you ended up tangled with your hair, too, which was a bit of a distraction.

Strands of what you found later was white got under your hand, caught your side, under your butt, and every twist hurt until you finally managed to wrangle it out of the way.

In that moment, the forest goddess was definitely the one laughing at you.

But it didn't matter. It was funny to you, too. 

Things were unquestionably different when you pulled yourself to the feet.

Your entire balance had shifted, your center of gravity not as it was before. 

You thought you'd fall or stumble, but your tails simply adjusted of their own volition and you were standing there before Inari.

A new fox before the fox goddess.


	6. Two Foxes Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coming to terms with changes isn't always easy.
> 
> Sometimes it's not that hard, either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A first kiss!

"Y-yeah, just thought you'd wanna know," Tamara says. There's pink in her cheeks as she... Yes, she is definitely checking you out. "I wanna..." She murmurs, trailing off.

"Tam..."

"It's nothing," she says, glancing up and down once more, lingering as she passes your hips and their fuller fit of your busted jeans.

"No, it's something," you quickly follow. For the first time, she catches your eyes, and her breath catches in her throat.

"I just didn't expect-" She steps back enough to flail her arms at you. "All this! You're freaking pretty!"

"Is this not what happens normally?" 

"No!" It's a sharp exclamation, her voice raising a bit. "This isn't normal! This isn't even fair!"

"I-" You pause, then close your eyes and step out of the cave. Into the forest and the world. The weight of that world falls like so much rain off of the back of oily fur.

"But I'm not alone, I guess," she finally manages, stilled at your emerging. She seems to perceive how you feel the burden of what came before. You may be trading it for a new burden, but... "I don't think I've really seen you happy before."

"It's horrible, isn't it?" You frown and squeeze your eyes closed. "How should I be allowed to be happy about anything with all this?"

"I'm guilty too, then," she replies, glancing out to the ruined village. "Maybe we're allowed to feel both. You know, sad and happy at once."

The thoughts that are racing through your mind are the same that have roared in the background, and often in the foreground, ever since you stood and realized that you were a girl.

It’d been one of those points of contention with your parents. It had impossibly been your fault, and unaccepting, the tore each other apart over it and forbade you from being you.

Until last night, it still scared you into following their word.

But both Tam and Inari both said the gem reacted to what was inside you. 

All you can muster is a quiet 'yeah'. That happiness is too deep, and her eyes almost speak to her understanding, as if she can see the burden lifted if not what it is.

"Right. We're not gonna let this stop us." There's a long silence before she speaks up, but when her golden eyes turn back to you, they're sparkling with tenacity.

"So we're the clan, now?"

"You always have a choice," she replies, "but yeah, basically."

"Do we need to find people to come to us, then?" You're not sure how that would go, with the need for such secrecy simply for the sake of survival.

"Not yeah, I think. First, I think we've got to work on us. On you, I mean." There's the blush, again.

"Is... Is there something else you wanna ask me?" You say, the words barely squeaking out.

"Is there something you want me to ask you?"

"Fuck, I should have expected that," you groan.

"See, this's why I like you," she says, smile back. "You're fun."

"Just fun?"

"I mean honestly, if you're gonna be rebuilding a life with someone, isn't that what matters most?"

"Not a lot of people would agree with that. But yeah, yeah I think so, too."

"Then I wanna ask you something, for real."

"Is this about the boobs?"

"Er, kinda, actually."

"What, really?" You blink and look over at her. Definitely not what you were expecting.

"Well, it's you and me, and we're it now, and that doesn't really matter for this question because I think I'd be asking either way and so I just wanna make absolutely sure that you get that this isn't a question I'm asking because-"

You must be staring.

"Just ask, Tam, it's ok," you say as she runs out of breath and pauses, looking as though she just committed some unpardonable sin.

"I wanna kiss you." 

"That's not a question."

"It kinda is?"

"Yes, then."

"You're sure? I don't want you to feel like you've gotta do this, it's just the whole time there's been something about you..."

"Yes, then," you repeat, sure your grin is utterly silly.

Like a coiled spring, she bounds up against you and grabs the back of your head, fingers running through your long hair as she pulls you together. There's an odd sensation when you feel your ears just barely rubbing together, and it's more odd when you feel one of them twitch.

You can't spare much thought for it, though, because your lips are pressed together. At first. Then it deepens, flowering. You feel your breath leaving you as you give in to the sudden unleashed passion she's showing to you.

You can viscerally feel her in the kiss, a kiss that’s somehow more than a kiss, as you feel the impression of her hurt and sadness and want and guilt and love. All of them are mired together, and yet you know you're giving back the same.

When the long moment finally ends with you both pulling back and gasping for breath, you find yourself leaning against one of the wooden columns for support even with as invigorated as your body feels with its new form.

"I hope that met your expectations," you say, reaching up to tentatively touch your lips to prove to yourself it's all real.

"Oh, totally," she says, eyes distant and aglow as she leans against the other column.


	7. Foxes Above, Foxes Below

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stargazing foxes, under a clear sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first ear pet occurs in this chapter and I'm kinda jealous, ngl.

Four stars.

The trees block one, but the four shine brightly in the night sky.

You've not seen the sky so vibrant with the elemental force of the heavens, before.

It's the light pollution. Even back home, it was too much to seem much more than Orion's Belt or Ursa Major and Minor.

As you side alongside Tam in the ruins of the village, there's something comforting about the way the bright sky beams down on you. 

It's calming and invigorating at once, in harmony with something deep inside of you.

"They do that a lot, you know," Tamara says, leaning over against you.

"Who?"

"Celestial foxes. Like you." Tam closes her eyes for a moment, and you feel the anguish wash over her in a new, but muted, swell. "I'll have to teach you everything, won't I? Samara, Naro, the others... They're all gone."

Still raw, yet the numbness is setting in.

"I'm sorry," you quietly reply.

"You say that so much," Tam says. You feel her shaking her head against your shoulder.

"Sorry," you murmur more quietly.

"It's ok," she says with a shrug. "I can feel your heart when you say it."

You're beginning to understand those faint impressions of each other you share, of your feelings, and you're not sure words would work anyway to explain it. A little nod suffices.

"A lot of us are more shy than the humans think." She's running her hand along your hair slowly as she looks up to the sky with you. "A kitsune who is a fighter is rare, and rarely long lived, my mom used to say to me."

"That's an old hurt, isn't it? She wasn't here." 

She nods.

"You're getting the connection fast."

"Is this for most people, or just us?"

"It's strong for us because we share it, but you can get hints of it with anyone."

"Makes sense," you say, reaching up a hand at the sky and playing at the stars. You're still not quite used to the subtle claws that your nails have become. "I wonder if this is because I spent all that time in the planetarium as a kid."

"Everything you do makes you you, so, maybe?" As the melancholy fades a bit into the noise of the other quagmire of mixed emotions, she reaches up with her hand.

You feel the tips of her sharp nails against your ear with the lightest of contact, before the softer pads touch.

And she rubs, oh so lightly.

You make a very undignified squeak at that - You want to say something out of surprise, but can't begin to protest the feeling. It's just too good and you're melting against her.

You can make out that she's giggling as she does it, a welcome lilt of joy rising between you.

"I'm sorry, it's such an intimate thing to do among us, but they're so pretty," she says as she encourages the way you're both cuddled together. "You're the first one I've gotten to share this with."

"What's that make us, then?" You feel a bit hazy as you ask, as her fingers continue to work. 

"Girlfriends. Fox Girlfriends." She says it very matter of fact, content happiness flowing joining yours, intense.

"I've got an idea," you say, finally managing to focus a bit. Reluctantly.

"Ooh?" She looks up at you, anticipation almost tangible.

"First, we need to get out of here, right?"

"Yeah," she sighs, a bit of the hurt rising up. "It's not safe to be here, really."

"Let's walk for a while, and find somewhere to have a proper rest. Then we'll work out what to do with ourselves, and how..." You wave absently in the air before you. "How we're gonna do it."

You can feel her shift, glancing around the ruined village. A few embers still glow, but the cool night still clings and dew is beginning to claim purchase.

"Yeah." Part of her doesn't want to go, but you know you're simply giving words to what you both feel.

Neither of you are moving. The rubbing is persisting. It's keeping you both level, you're pretty certain.

You're laying back against her for at least half an hour, silence reigning, before she finally sighs and you know it's time.

"If we take the forest pathways there's an old den that we can hole up in while we figure this out." She stretches out as she begins to walk toward the front of the village.

"Sounds good," you agree. You follow along until you reach the thick ring of trees around the village. "You know, I meant to ask. After all this, Inari told me 'welcome home.' But, well, you know."

Her step hitches for a moment, her tails stiffening.

"Issir," she says, and you almost think it might have hurt her, but instead she's looking back at you with a rueful smile. "Family is home."

She wanted to give you a real family.

Even if for now it is just the two of you, that is what it is.

And that part gives you shared hope that burns bright between you.

You can't help but return that sad smile.

Her eyes go wide.

The questioning look on your face, unspoken, is obvious as she looks down, then falls on a knee.

There's a ghost of distress between you, but it's overridden by something very different, something that reminds you of getting your ears rubbed.

She covers her mouth as she stifles a cry of pleasure. With hazy eyes, she looks up at you, a third tail waving lazily behind her. 

In that instant, it makes perfect sense.

"I think she's happy with us."

Side by side, you travel along one of the wooded paths. It feels like the others you used to get to the village, but you notice more discrepancies.

Each trail has its own quicks, from the kinds of bushes and trees, to the birds that peak in from all around, and even in the snakes, bugs, and rabbits.

The last hare you saw fled when it saw you both, to an apologetic shrug from Tamara - Not natural friends, you suppose.

"Maybe I should finish out my classes at the university," Tam says. It's been a couple of hours since you started walking the path away from the scar that remains of the village.

"I guess that make sense," you say, though the thought of the university still has a distant sting.

"It's just, it's what I was sent to learn, and even if our clan is just us, it won't hurt if we're both versed in the human world. Not a worry for you, but..." She gives a little shrug and grin as her words fade.

"What should I do?" You really aren't sure on the logistics of that idea, but you quirk your lips to the side in thought. "I guess I can't go back and pick up where I left off."

"I can help you look human, but I can't help you with writing a whole new thesis in two weeks."

"I don't think even Inari could manage that one," you say. At least it stings less to say, now.

"To be fair, she'd probably just possess the professor and give herself an A, then hypnotize the whole thesis defense room and give herself passes there, too."

"I mean, there's no way we could pull that off, right?" 

"Uh, Issir," she says, the wheels turning in her head making you curious - it's an interesting emotional mix that flows between you. "Not to say you don't know, but we're three tails. We... We probably could if we tried."

"What was all that about being dead to the old world and my life, then?" You're not even able to be upset about it, just inquisitive.

"Ah, yeah. That." She pauses a second, and you turn to look back at her. Then she hops forward and boops you on the nose with her finger. "S'kind of a lie."

You should be angry about that.

You're surprised by the fact the strongest negative feeling you can muster is a shrug.

"Why?"

"Because sometimes it's necessary to leave everything, but sometimes there are things you can carry over, too. It... really depends." She's past you and hopping along again.

"We can work out what, uh, what works, then, I guess," You have to go into a little trot to catch up to her. "When we get there."

"Another thought." She stops on the trail, and tapping at her lips in thought. "This would probably go faster if we didn't use our half-human forms."


	8. Learning to Fox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes a little effort to figure out how four legs work, instead of two, but it's addicting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regrettably the only chapter with full on fox forms for our kitsune.

Four feet.

Learn to run.

...Learn to walk, first.

It’s taken the better part of an hour to get down the concept of switching into your fox form.

After Tam has you go through it several times, it's as easy as telling your body to do anything else it does. It's instinct, purely natural. 

One thing you had not anticipated was your size.

You've seen foxes on TV. At the natural history museum. At the zoo.

They are not three and a half feet tall at their shoulders.

But you both are.

Your pace isn't steady. Tam speeds up sometimes, her orange fur surging forward, and other times she slows to a trot. Each time you match her.

It is not like it was trudging along the trail for four days. This is effortless. This is more fulfilling than any walk in a park or nature preserve you ever had.

And the connection.

There are no spoken words; your muzzles are not adapted for that and care little for the concerns of human social mores.

_ So will hiding as a human be this easy? _ You simply need to think, and she hears.

_ Hate to say but it's completely different, _ she thinks in return.

_ Really? That seems weird. _ You bound after her over the top of a large rock encroaching on the path, vaulting through the air for a few glorious moments.

_ It's like wearing a costume, not something as natural as this or our kitsune forms. _

You catch up to her, turning to look before you're ahead again.

There's a pressure on your back, suddenly, and you furrow your brow. You can't quite twist enough to look but you have a pretty good idea what just happened.

_ Are you seriously riding on me? _

_ Sue me, you looked comfortable. _

_ Ok, where do I find a fox lawyer? _

_ Lawyers are weasels, not foxes. _

_ Ouch. _

_ Just sayin’. _

_ Don't tell me there are wereweasels next. _

_ Nope. Just wolves, tigers, crocs, and house cats, but they're kind of jerks. _

_ I shouldn't have asked that, huh. _

_ You were gonna find out eventually. _ You're pretty sure she's laying down like a loaf on your back, paws crossed over your shoulders as they flex with each step.

_ I guess if kitsune and vampires are things, then it makes sense. _

_ Where'd you find out vampires are real? _

You hesitate for a moment, but she feels it. You're not sure you even need to make it into words.

_ Inari said a vampire burned the village. _

The confusion is almost disorienting, but you don't have trouble keeping yourself steady as you keep going.

_ That makes no sense. Vampires give exactly zero fucks about the forest. _

She said something about not being entirely responsible for her actions?

_ I... _ She wants to be angry at the vampire, the heat seething in your mind.

A sense of defeat replaces it after a long moment.

_ She said we'd get vengeance. Someday. _

_ But not now. Typical divine attitude. Time's different to them. I know we have lots of it, too, but it hurts. _

_ And how long does a kitsune live, then? _

_ Uh, it can be a really long time. Our elder was three-hundred fifty or something. Honestly a lot of us kinda stop counting, I think. _

It's not what you were expecting, and it's the kind of thing you can't quite wrap your head around with everything else at the moment.

_ So anyway, you have a place in the human world, then. Can we sneak back there safely? _

_ Oh yeah, probly. I wasn't really thinking about it before. _

_ I'm not sure thinking clearly is gonna be our strong points for a while, after all this. _

No words again, just a sense of agreement and frustration. She leaps from your back and you're running in tandem again.

_ I'll be able to conceal you if it's just up to the apartment from the park, and we can work on looking human later. _

_ Does it bother you to go back?  _ You know the answer.

_ A little. But the cave is gonna be cold and uncomfortable. I have a bed and a nice couch, and fox or not, I like comfy things. _

_ I'm up for giving comfy a chance. _

_ I gotta admit,  _ the coyness in her thoughts unmistakable,  _ I'm kinda looking forward to curling up with you. _

You don't need to do a thing for her to know you are, too. Your bond makes it clear as the stars above.

It takes through daybreak to reach the place where she comes to a stop and perks up her ears, taking in the scent of the air.

_ You're a beautiful fox, but I need you back in two-legged form, _ she thinks, as her form shimmers and shifts.

"Two feet, let's go."

Either form is new to you, and you want time with both, so you find yourself unbothered to be back to your other self.

"So what's going to happen is I'm going to wave a bit of our magic around us, and you're gonna look like my tall gothy friend with dyed white hair."

With a simple push from your intent, you're standing on two feet beside her, and the expression on your face seems to read easily enough before you can even speak.

"Sorry, but hair color is the one thing we can't change or hide."

"At least let me have some color in my outfit."

"Do you even know any goth girls?"

"I've seen a couple."

"You didn't look close."

"Fine, fine," you agree with a roll of your eyes.

She lifts up a hand, squinting her eyes in concentration as she looks you over. It's a soft breeze that seems to allow come with her magic, and it sweeps along you. You can feel as your clothing assumes a different aspect.

Purple and white accent the black of your dress when you look down, with fishnet sleeves on your gloves and legs.

"Pretty hot, if I do say so myself," she says, a hand on her hip as she looks at you with triumph in her eyes.

"It could be worse," you murmur quietly.

"It definitely could be. Lucky for you, I’m amazing."

Something about it strikes you, as you recognize the Tamara from your periodic encounters in class and the hallways of the university.

"You know, Tam," you begin to a curious tilt of her head. You kind of miss that twitch of her ears as they'd be focusing on you.

"What's up, Issir?" The smile hasn't faded. It's not a bad thought you're entertaining, after all, and she knows that.

"You really are just... kind of amazing, now that I think about it."

"Whattya mean. I wasn't amazing before?" That grin of mischief is starting to become familiar, and you're pretty sure you're not going to ever tire of it.

She pokes you in the arm, sparing you having to come up with a retort.

"Let's go!"

It's a brisk walk to the row of apartment buildings along the park. You recognize them as being opposite of where your place is. ...was.

She swipes a key card on the front door, and you're in, then up the steps in a moment.

Down the hall, the last room toward the green of the park, is where she leads you.

"Hey, Tam!" The cheerful greeting is coming from a girl leaning out one of the doors.

"Hey, Bethany," Tam calls back, giving a small wave.

"I'm gonna have to ask you about that tall girl right there tomorrow. Just sayin'."

"Oh," Tam says, going red in the face. "Uh, yeah, sure!"

There's a short and loud amused laugh, and the door across the hall closes.

"Gonna be a hell of an story, bonus points if you can get in calling me foxy."

She glares up at you and mouths a 'shut up' before the door swings open and she drags you in by the arm.


	9. Were Gonna Fox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Need one, sated.  
> Need two? Let's go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all lewdness. Enjoy.

Fourteen bucks.

Four sandwiches.

A couple of bottles of water.

The growling of stomachs is done for a while, at least. Human disguises still back in place from making a quick run out to find an open food joint, you’re laying with Tam on opposite ends of the couch.

It’s not terribly late in the day yet, though you ate up a lot more time than you’d realized working each other’s ears.

“It’s been what, like twenty-five minutes?”  You always remember the rule about waiting after eating before swimming. You’re assuming it applies to the imminent result of the desire you feel radiating off of her and converging with your own.

“Prolly,” Tam says, giving you a critical eye.

“You still feel stuffed?” You try to hide the hopefulness in your voice.

She licks at one of her fangs, the tooth only slightly exaggerated in her human guise.

Probably not anymore, then.

“You?”

You bite your lip, shaking your head slowly.

She’s on her feet already, and she reaches out for you. Taking her hand, you’re pulled up and you’re heading for the room again.

“No more obstacles, no more interruptions, just-” The frustration is thick in her voice as she opens the door and you both step in. “Just us. Please.”

“You have me and can have me,” you reply.

“No hiding, either,” she says, letting your illusions fall away.

The black, gold trimmed robe she wears in her kitsune form is all that covers her, but she lowers her hands to pull it up and over her head.

There’s little ceremony to it; her eagerness leaves no room for that.

She beckons you with a crooked finger to step closer, accented with a claw.

Moving into her embrace, it feels like picking up where you were stopped before. Her hands start at your shoulders, feeling your body ravenously and then descending, sliding down your front and then your hips.

She’s aggressive enough that you can’t position your own hands yet to do more than touch the back of her head with one, fingers slipping into her hair. She reacts with a nip at your jaw, and then you feel her hook her fingers into the waistband of your old jeans. 

With a strong yank, her claws rend through them, shredding them enough that she only need push a bit for them to fall, ruined, to the floor.

They were already ruined anyway, after all.

The shirt fares no better, and suddenly you find yourself very naked before her, a sort of heat and charge burning in your chest and through your belly like you’ve never experienced before.

So that’s what it’s like to be turned on as a girl.

Tam seems to have decided you need further examples, and leans in to nip and kiss at your collar bone. It’s easy to figure out where she’s going, yet it still catches you off guard when her tongue finds one of your nipples, teasing at the stiffened nub.

And do you moan at that. Her ears perk up and you can see her grin just barely beyond her hair, her face at your chest.

You manage to slip your hands down, letting go her hair and moving around. Just enough reach to get her chest in turn, you cup and caress, feeling her shape and the yielding nature there.

In return, she pushes you by the shoulder hard toward the bed, and suddenly you’re laying on your back 

She climbs up over you in a flash, looking down with her eyes hazy, half-lidded.

“We deserve this, you know,” she says, tongue playing at her fang again. “For what we’ve had to deal with.”

“We do.” You don’t really need more to emphasize you agree.

Of course, the empathic bond you share makes it perfectly obvious even in the swarm of roiling desire, desire long ago since crystallized into need.

She falls upon you, kissing deeply. You miraculously seem to dodge each others fangs as your tongues search. Your hands are no less busy, exploring, testing, appreciating each other.

Her knee prods between yours, and you acquiesce, letting her push it down. Your instinct cries out to you that you want whatever it is she’s doing, even though you’re not totally certain what-

Her thigh pushes up right between your legs.

The world feels like it’s falling apart as she rubs and pushes with it against you. The wanton moan you let out makes her ears perk up, and she makes her own little sound of appreciation in turn.

She pushes herself up a bit, using your chest as a convenient hand hold with the added bonus of a tweak at your hardened peaks that cause you to quiver.

It’s threatening to overwhelm all your senses, your nerves aching to go haywire; you’re pretty sure it’s the best thing ever.

Something in you wills you to lift up one of your legs. As you do, her eyes go wide for a moment, before she pushes back against your thigh and her eyes close.

It’s her turn to moan out so loud that you expect to get complaints in the morning.

Small price to pay.

Your tails are getting extremely uncomfortable, and not even the power of the intimate touches can quite stop that. You reach to her shoulder, tapping with a finger. 

Tam seems to get the idea, and rolls with you onto your sides. There’s a soft thump as you land on the sheets.

It works out, though, with the jolt that arcs straight through you both.

Yep, neighbor complaints are inevitable. You just accept it - Besides, there’s no fun in being quiet, you figure. 

...Well, maybe another time.

“This’s new to you,” Tam murmurs against your neck, in the wake of a tiny nip with her fangs. “I think… I think you’re gonna like this.”

First, though, you whine softly in disappointment when she disentangles your legs and settles onto an elbow.

“Let me get a look at you.” 

Not entirely sure what to do with that request, you stretch one arm above you, the other lying comfortably along your side.

She takes the chance to slide her eyes up and down the length of you, taking in the curves, the way your form has become so lithe and strong in contrast.

Before never felt so real as now.

You can feel her adoration so strongly that you close your eyes for a moment, but you quickly think better of it.

Tam is not so different from you. A slight bit more wiry, skin the shade of someone spending so much time outside, and smooth until her fur picks up near her tails and the back of her neck.

In most ways, the details of her look don’t even matter to you. It’s the way she has taken up with you, the way her mischief-driven mind works, and her sincere heart that mean the most.

But seeing her in all her glory before you?

It is most welcome.

The mixture of relief, thankfulness, and adoration you share so intensely is hard to even pinpoint as hers or yours. Both works better, you think.

And then she bites the corner of her lip and reaches down to her thigh.

There’s a glint of wetness against the light, and she drags a finger through it, then holds it up to inspect.

“This is you, you know?” 

She reaches out to your leg.

Her middle finger slides along her wetness left lingering on your thigh, and she holds her hand up again.

“And me.”

She lets her fingers rest together, and leans in toward you.

“This is us.”

Featherlight, she touches the paired fingers to your lips. You can smell, first, the unique heady scent. Then, as she gets closer, she grins, sticks out her tongue quickly, and then pushes her lips to the fingers opposite yours.

It’s not hard to get the idea.

It’d be hard to not to respond even if you didn’t.

You kiss at the fingers, then you feel her tongue. You meet it, but more than that you taste her fingers.

In that moment, you learn exactly the unique taste that makes you are, as a pair.

She leaves her fingers there, playing at your lips and tongue as she breaks away. With a thumb, she finds one of your fangs and pushes your lip up a bit, giving you a brief smirk from halfway down your belly.

“Your eyes right now…” Her whisper sends a welcome shiver down your spine, as your tongue slips along her fingers and she continues to play. 

After you don’t know how long, she pulls her hand away, once more eliciting the quietest of whines from you.

“Sorry,” she says, her hand gripping your thigh and pushing it straight up in the air, “I need to move this.”

You’re exposed to the warm air completely, and the pressure of her short, wanton breaths. The tenseness is gripping you; you’re not even quite sure how to respond but to offer yourself to her hopefully with a slight wiggle of your hips.

“Don’t worry, my precious fox, I have you,” she says. The anticipation she feels is washing over you, and you almost cry out prematurely before her tongue finds you.

You’re biting your curled up finger in your mouth, because this?

This is too much.

Too good.

The way your nerves, your body sings in response to her licks and nips, the circles with her tongue, the flicks…

And it’s persistent, driving you up to a precipice you can feel coming. It’s familiar, vaguely, yet totally not, unlike anything you’d experience for yourself before. It’s too broad, to encompassing of your body, with pressure all over. 

But it will not be immediate.

There is time involved, and she is enthusiastically enjoying that journey to the breaking point.

You’re pushing down against her and you think you’d be embarrassed if you saw yourself, but it doesn't matter anymore.

Her fingers let your leg rest down over her shoulder a while ago, and she decides to take advantage of that, fingers sliding and exploring the roundness of your ass.

Her fingers seem almost reluctant when they do not linger long, but something else is calling.

That sense of mischief spikes, pouring into you. Somehow, it simply makes things better.

It’s really the last part of it where you’re rational. Her fingers, splayed wide, touch against your tails, right where they grow from your spine.

She manages to get one between each of her fingers, all three at home as she shifts her fingers slowly in a firm massage.

The ears were good, comforting and delightful.

This? This is short-circuiting lust at its finest.

Earlier, part of you had wondered how long it might take to come with your new body, with having to relearn everything.

It almost rockets past you without fair warning when you cry out against your finger. You’re pretty sure you’ve bitten it too hard, and you get a bit of the tinge of copper, but it’s far from your mind as the tsunami hits.

Your other hand is in her hair, fingers laced as you hold on for dear life as the twitches and quivers take control of your body, the pleasure and relief of your peak being burned into your memory.

She’s delicate as it happens, keeping up a firm pressure but moving very little, the stilled touch coaxing out little subsequent tremors and soft gasps from you. She’s languidly squeezing your rear again as she lets her fingers slip free from your tails, but there’s a deep sense of need radiating from her.

It is not a shock to you, of course. Looking down, vision hazy, into her gleaming gold eyes, you resolve that it’s only the first orgasm for either of you.

Your breath comes under control faster than you expected, and you lick at your fang in anticipation. Her eyes go wide for a split second in anticipation, and it amuses you for her to suddenly know what that mischievous intent feels like from the other direction.

You reach down, taking her exposed arm and pulling. She’s not hesitant at all to meet you, and before anything else, her lips land against yours in a wet, dizzying kiss. You taste what is uniquely you on her lips and cheeks, and find it’s rather unfair in its musky taste.

But you do not let it go long. It is not a concern of time, but of that want you feel from her.

You reach down, both hands grasping her rear, and you pull.

It’s so easy to do, guiding her to scoot up over you. You prop your hips up, leg crooked to let your tails be comfortable. 

She looks down from high, thighs just below your breasts, and you can see her flushed. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” You’re fairly sure she melts a little as you pull again, and soon she’s lowering herself to your face.

The taste that is hers is not that unlike your own, but different enough for you to know it is hers. 

Your approach is more slow, tongue seeking and exploring as you squeeze her rear with your hands. You find her sensitive nub, careful of your pressure but always around it and making sure it is attended.

You slip one of your hands up.

It’s only fair, after all.

You slip fingers along her tails, and rub sensuously.

“Nnnngah!” she cries out, shuddering against you. It’s almost infectious, how good she feels; you wonder if it was so vivid for her when she was eating you out, too.

Her hands, as she curls inward, press against the bed.

They slip closer.

And she clenches your ears in them.

Unlike her loud cry, yours is muffled against her. The sensitivity of everything is different with the heat you are both lost in. Her position, your want to please her and be under her, and that needy grip all make it just as acute an ache as it was to start with.

And she can tell, through it, somehow. She moves a hand, fumbling behind herself blindly until she gets ahold of your free hand’s wrist. She twists and pushes your hand down between your legs.

“You too, please!” Her voice is shaky, desperate.

You could hardly resist that request if you even wanted. Your fingers find your still copiously slick self, and immediately you squirm below her.

The path is faster this time, and somehow, through your empathic link or pure luck, the climax hits you both at the same time.

She’s soaked against you, wetness in your hair as she bucks, and everything you sense in the world is sweet release and the taste of her. The way it blazes through her nerves and rebounds into your mind makes it feed back into itself, and it goes on.

And on.

She flops exhausted beside you, an arm draped over you and tails flat against her face is buried against the sheets. You have an arm under her, and one laying the mess of your pooled hair.

The room is nothing but the lingering, very distinct scent of you combined and panting for breath.

You ache, and so does she, muscles worked in ways unfamiliar.

“Wanna go again,” she murmurs, turning her head to look at you with half-lidded eyes.

You nod.

You don’t ache that much.


	10. Foxfire's Legacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life has to go on, and it's time to decide just what that is going to look like.

Four window curtains.

Four slices of light spilling over a bed.

It’s a twitch of your ear that makes you open your eyes and pulls you out of your slumber. It was a sleep so deep and content that you’re not sure you’ve had anything like it before.

With your senses coming to life, it quickly dawns on you that you do not want to move. You can feel Tamara’s limbs entwined with yours, her soft breath warming your arm. 

You’re warm, both of you draped under thin sheets made into a little furnace that feels just right.

"Hey, pretty girl," she says as she sees you with her eyes fluttering open.

"Hey," you whisper back. The words hit a bit too nicely inside you somewhere to think of a better response. 

"I've never woken up next to someone before," she says, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Not like this, anyways."

"Same, but it's pretty nice."

She gives a sleepy grin, strands of her hair still fallen around her face. Her hand moves over and lays against your cheek, where she strokes along your cheekbone with her thumb.

"You're so pretty."

Considering you were about to say the same words, you can't help but just opt to give a tiny grin, because, well, they just feel so good.

She must expect it, with the light giggle she makes.

What's it going to hurt, anyway?

"Tam, you're..." You can't even think of any other words to use. "You're pretty, too."

Instead of the awkwardness you'd expected in returning her adoration, it just feels right. She scoots closer to you, moving her hand to your shoulder to pull you against her.

You cuddle tightly to each other, hugging the bed sheets tighter, too. A bed burrow, you decide; hopefully one you'll be sharing for a long time.

The soft breathing you share and the dreamy happiness of it lasts for no short period of time.

Eventually, though, you feel the gnawing at your stomach, among other things you need to take care.

"We gotta get up, don't we," she sighs. You're not thrilled about it, either.

"Bathroom's right there." She haphazardly aims a thumb over her shoulder.

You stick a long leg out of the covers, and find at least it's not as cold as you'd feared outside your bundle.

Still, you hesitate. It's ever so nice with Tam under the sheets, after all.

You let out a surprised 'eek' when suddenly you're shoved out and you're hopping on a foot with your arms and tails splayed out to keep you from falling.

"Go, I need to too!" She gives you a mischievous grin, before tugging the covers against herself.

You can almost feel her saying 'it smells like you' in satisfaction.

In a few moments, you're back, and she swaps out, though she doesn't look happy about leaving the cocoon on the bed.

When she trudges back in, you're sitting on the end of the bed, looking at the tattered remains of your jeans and t-shirt on the floor.

"Ohh right," she says, looking at them. "We're gonna have to get you a new wardrobe, huh."

"I thought Kitsune didn't need to use human clothes?" After Tam used her magic last night to disguise you, your assumption is just that it's how it always works.

"Nah," she says, shaking her head. "It's easier to transform naked and just grab human clothes when you're pulling off the charade a lot, but we didn't really have a choice before."

"Oh." You shrug. "Well what am I gonna do then? I have basically nothing."

"First of all? We don't buy stuff most of the time. It's easy for us to get what we want."

"You mean steal it?"

"It's human stuff, who cares?"

You pause, and purse your lips at that.

You're sure you'd have raised an objection before everything, but for some reason you heart just doesn't seem into worrying about it.

"Fair 'nuff." You shrug.

"We're not going out right now, though," she cautions with a single warding finger. "This is too cozy and I know we're both still ragged."

"No argument here."

"Hm, let's see. A bit taller, but pretty much the same build," she murmurs, tapping her lips in contemplation. "Let's see what I've got."

She heads for a set of drawers, first, and sorts through it for a moment, then pulls a couple of things free.

Next, it's on to the closet, where she quickly yanks out a t-shirt.

She steps over to you, clearly proud of what she's put together, judging by her grin and alert ears.

"Here ya' go," she says, holding out the small pile of clothes to you. Leggings, panties, a bra that looks a bit too small, and a simple white t-shirt with the university's logo.

"Do you think this'll- I've never..."

She raises her brows and gives you a dry look.

"Just put them on, it'll be fine."

Panties? Check.

Leggings? Check.

Left a little down to let your tails sway freely, but good so far.

Bra? Three and a half minutes of trying to get the clasp to not be the most uncooperative invention of evil in the history of humanity.

She's on her side, head completely upside down, watching as she lounges on the bed.

Giggling uncontrollably, too.

You roll your eyes and look down, letting the bra simply hang unclasped.

"Ok, ok. Help, then."

"Aw, poor kit," she says, managing to calm a bit. She pushes herself up and presses a hand gently between your shoulder blades.

"It was funny, but I've got you. I... I'll always have your back, ok?"

The words feel sudden, yet not - You already knew it to be true, after all. 

"I know you know this because of how we feel each other but, just to say it..." She leans her head and lets her head rest above her hand. "I think... I know, I love you."

What else is there you could possibly say?

"I love you, Tam," you say, closing your eyes at the happy contentedness that flows between you. "I bet it'd seem silly to the people I used to know."

"It's different when you can feel someone's feelings," Tam says, just barely nodding against you.

"I had no idea that was going to happen." It was a surprise, to be sure. One you find you're grateful for.

"Humans get scared sometimes if you tell them it might happen. Feelings mean a lot to people, even if they don't wanna admit it."

"No kidding," you say with a sad laugh. "But who cares about all that right now?"

"I just care about you."

"Same to you."

Her hands are a bit shaky when she takes yours to guide them back. 

There's a moment when you feel that tempting desire flare up, in both of you, but she steadies herself. 

"No, business first."

"Later on. We have time," you reply, though the thought makes you bite your lip lightly.

"Ok, take hold here," she says, guiding you to the ends of the bra. "Then trust your hands, don't worry as much about the material. Just rub your fingers together, and... Yeah! There!"

You sigh in relief as the last of the three hooks catch and it settles in place.

"A little tight, but it's ok." The support is nice, at least. 

"Yeah, we're gonna have to get you something a touch bigger."

"It's ok for now."

"Say that in twelve hours," she says, grinning at you as she helps you slip the t-shirt on.

You laugh and shrug.

"Probably won't, I know."

She gives you a tug toward the door at that, and in a moment you're both in the small kitchen.

"I'll fix you one of my favorites," she says, "then you can do lunch."

"I know a good curry recipe or two."

"Haven't had that, but sure."

"Ah, now there's pressure that you like it."

“Seems unlikely, humans mostly do good food."

"Wouldn't have guessed that was a thing."

"Oh, totally."

She sets a plate on the small bar that's alongside the kitchen, with two sandwiches sitting there.

She has a quirky smile as she looks from them to you.

"Go on, take one!"

She's really eager, and it's infectious. On one hand, you're not sure what kind of sandwich a fox could make, but she's been living around humans, too.

You pick one up. Whole grain bread, robust and warm. It looks like some meat and something red inside.

It's a curious mixture of tastes, the grain bread, chicken, and something sweet.

You give a nod and take a few more bites.

"You'll be surprised how much energy we burn, so... sugar and protein, a lot of the time."

"So it's jam?"

She nods, picking up hers.

"Raspberry!"

Not so different from something like pork and applesauce, you figure.

Once you're through it, she's already done; she's a quick eater when she's motivated, it seems.

"So," Tam says, putting the plate in the sink and washing it quickly. "We're gonna stay here, I'm gonna finish my classes, and then?"

"That's what, a year and a half?"

She nods and hums affirmatively.

"So you'll do classes and stuff, what about me? I mean I'm happy to help, of course."

"I wonder," she says, drying off her hands. 

"I mean, could we really hypnotize the whole thesis defense, and the professor? You could work, otherwise, but..." She doesn't look too enthusiastic about that idea.

"I don't have any ID or anything, anyway," you add. "That person's gone."

"We can get you new stuff. There's a guy in town who helps people." She's heading over to the couch, and you don't see any reason not to follow.

You both flop down, tails curled around and draped along side you. The tips twitch occasionally at one another's contact.

"People like us, anyway. A bit weird, but he's nice."

"Well that's a ringing endorsement, huh?"

"I said he's nice!"

"And weird."

She groans and rolls her eyes, but you can tell it's amusing her, too.

"So we'll do that," you say. "And?"

"You need to work on how everything, well, works. You know, learn what you can do, what you can see, who you can charm."

"So, I'm studying being a fox, and you're studying cultural anthropology and history?"

"I think it works."

“I’m not gonna worry about my thesis, Tam.”

On one hand, that seems like it'll be less chaotic, and maybe a bit less exciting.

On the other, a week ago or so you were a normal human in a state of disaster.

Things didn’t seem simple, at first, aside from the feelings that freely flow between you and Tamara.

“All that is up in your head, anyway. What’s a piece of paper matter?”

And it’s true. You really can’t say all your study didn’t lead to something.

Being chewed out by a professor, getting ambushed by a kitsune, having your life totally recreated, and on top of that, being in love, all of it because of your research.

You find yourself laughing. At everything.

“I’m fine with working on me,” you say, looking into her eyes. “The real me, that you found.”

She leans forward, and gives you a gentle kiss that you return.

"So then what about going out somewhere for spring break? We could go somewhere big, some national park or something."

"We can run free in the woods, see the waterfalls and wildlife," you say, the idea sounding pleasant.

"Stargazing, too," she adds, giving you a little wink.

"Let's do it."

For a moment, you simply enjoy the presence of one another, content.

There's a knock on the door.

Tam hops up to check the eyelet to see the culprit. She sighs and gives you an apologetic look. With a few sweeps of magical energy, your ears and tails are hidden from sight, and she unlocks the door.

Bethany pokes her head in.

"Oh wow, still here. Musta been fun," she says. "You owe me play-by-play and who this girl is!"

Tam throws a wink to you.

"So, you wanna hear all about my foxy girl, here?"

Damn. Now you owe her.

And you’re ok with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was incredibly fun to write, and I hope everyone enjoyed partaking.
> 
> Issir and Tam will be back in future parts of my original fiction world, doing their kitsune thing and trying to avoid all the vampires and demons and other things!


	11. Foxing 301

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things don't go quite as planned, but no one is complaining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Foreplay/Ear Petting abounds.

Four hands, all searching.

You had planned to get some discussing and eating done when you got in the apartment.

It was the most honest and true of intentions.

It lasted about three steps. You haven't bothered to note what the room even looks like beyond the vague impressions of 'wall', 'couch', 'kitchen', and 'door'.

She's guiding you both as your lips, really your whole mouths, seek each other out recklessly.

You feel the back of your legs bump against softness and cushions, and you hazard a glance away to see the black sheets and comforter of her bed.

"We probably shouldn't be doing this already," you murmur as your lips meet again.

"Why not?" She turns and nips at your jaw, eyes glittering as she looks up at you.

"Good point," you say, nodding and returning the favor with a delighted hum as a reward.

"I'm new to this." Just to get it out there, you feel like you should advise her first.

"Same," she answers instantly. The excitement burning between you is enough that you should have known, you figure.

"Cool, we'll call it practice." You're back to each other's lips, the kisses quick and shallow.

"I plan to be serious, thanks," she says before hopping up past you, pulling you onto the bed.

She falls back, taking you with her, and you find yourself laying beside her, both catching your breath.

"So when I said I had an idea last night," you say as your breathing slows, "it wasn't just talking and working out a plan."

She hums affirmatively in response. She knows, after all, there was something else.

"This is gonna be goofy, but... Can we lay on the floor? You first, I'll finish."

"Sure, you've got me. I'm curious."

There's a few lingering moments to catch your breath before she rolls to the side and puts her feet down.

"I do wanna get back to the bed, though."

You can only nod in response. No difference of opinion there.

"Uh, is it safe here? Can you dispel the ill-" It's done before you finish your request.

The magic gone, you're both back to your half-human forms, tails and ears free. 

"We are gonna have to work on you having some better clothes. They're literally tearing apart."

"I mean I knew the jeans were toast, but..."

"Boobs."

"Shit, I didn't even-"

"You didn't notice that they were feeling pretty free?" Her look is of utter shock. Fortunately, it's less tragic in its origins, this time.

"I just... figured that was normal?"

She puts her hand on her face and sighs.

"I can't even."

"Hey, I said I'm new. It applies to a lot of things!"

"Yeah, I suppose it does."

"Wait a minute, you had to have noticed, and you didn't say anything?"

Tam blinks, clearly caught, and recoils a bit.

"I mean, it was nice to look at!"

"Uh huh," you reply, nodding smugly.

She pops up a finger, waving a claw.

"Push it, and there aren't even gonna be what's left of your shirt to cover 'em."

"Just don't hurt the jacket."

"Of course not! It's nice."

You allow yourself a moment of relief that it wasn't the victim of any unintended damage from your transformation.

"Ok so, on the floor?"

"Yeah, the little hallway, just lay down, k?"

She gives a shrug and goes past you, back into the hall.

"Here?"

"Yeah, now keep facing me and just , you know, opposite me."

You go past and soon you're at either end, only carpet between you.

"Now, meet me in the middle."

"I have no idea what you are doing," Tam says, shaking her head at you, but as you lower yourself to your knees, she follows.

Down further, onto your stomach you go, then you wince as your chest contacts the floor and your weight starts to rest on it.

"Ouch ok, not that way," you say, rolling over.

...right onto your tails. It's not as bad, but the pressure is decidedly annoying. 

"Yeah, it takes some getting used to," she says, laughing as you try to get comfortable. "S'why we curl up a lot."

You shift your legs apart, your hips up just a hair. The tails, free, sway in victory. 

She gives a begrudging nod of approval that you've situated yourself with minimal suffering, and lays down the same, your heads next to each other.

"So, foxy lady, what's this about?"

You snort a laugh before you can stop it.

"Don't worry," she says. "I'm gonna make sure you laugh more in your life. It's part of our thing."

"I think I'll like that." You reach up, stretching your arms toward the ceiling, then lower them carefully. "So here's how this is gonna work." You use your other hand to find her shoulder, and with a bit of fumbling, get her hand to yours.

She makes a curious 'hmm' as you pull her hand toward you. When her fingertips feel the fur of your ear, she grips it lightly between two of them.

There's a jolt that runs through you at that.

"O-" It hitches in your throat for a second, and you have to swallow. "Ok, and next..." Your other hand drifts to her head.

Your fingers take one of her ears, just as you guided her to one of yours.

You stroke three fingers up along the outside, your thumb cradled on the inner part.

"Ooooohhhh," she lets out. You're not sure if it's a word or a moan.

The content pleasure sweeps through you, and then it becomes entirely impossible to cope with as she mirrors your motion, petting your ear.

You have to slap your free hand over your mouth, but there's no doubt that she hears it as you make the same sound.

“Is’s’sa good idea,” she practically purrs, rubbing her cheek against yours.

“Yeh,” you murmur through an appreciative groan.

“This’s going on our list of things to spend time doing.”

Like you’re going to argue that.

Minutes go by, and you both change your rhythms once in a while, the gentle massage of ears as much as a balm on the hurts still clinging to you both as a joy.

Eventually, you feel her shift a bit, and you glance to the side to find her rolled toward you, looking at you.

You turn to meet her.

It’s a bit awkward, upside down.

You don’t care, though, when she kisses you.

Somewhere in that long, slow kiss of tentative want, the massaging touches change to soft cradling and tugs, little tweaks and squeezes of each other’s ears.

It’s when you first feel a nip of a fang at your lip that it really starts to crumble.

The shudder of longing and pleasure that runs through your chest and along your belly makes your hips squirm, punctuated by your gasp as you lips slip apart for a moment.

Kisses, coy looks, and jokes?

They didn’t prepare you for how this feels.

“We can kinda-” You have to hold down another sound, pushing your tongue against the back of your teeth and your new fangs. “We can, you know…”

She gives a questioning hum, doing about as well at words as you are.

“Couch thing, we can sit,” you manage. 

Any other time, you’re pretty sure that she’d be making a quip.

Instead, she just nods, eyes half-lidded.

You’re on your feet in a flash, and she’s right behind you.

No wait - She’s in front of you, and reaching out to pull you alongside her.

She takes your cheeks in her hands with a delicate touch, and kisses you anew, her eyes drifting shut.

Your hands fall to her hips, holding you against each other with your stomachs and chests with glorious pressure that makes you shudder. It’s the most strange and satisfying thing to feel that she feels it just as you do.

The loud growl of a stomach decides to chaperone you without warning, or maybe you were both just ignoring the warnings.

You close your eyes and wince, and she lets her forehead slump against your shoulder.

“Not fair,” you groan into her hair.

“Betrayed,” she bemoans.

“Food then?” It’s a reluctant offer.

“I guess.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please let us know if you liked our writing, and feel free to leave any constructive criticism in comments here or in asks at our tumblrs (and now twitter because fuck tumblr), including if you spy a missing tag:  
> NSFW Story Stuff: https://twitter.com/shadysuccubus  
> SFW Story Stuff: https://twitter.com/Archaema


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